In commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,747 of Decroix and in German patent 3,039,635 of B. Cheval a container is described that has an annular and erect outer wall in the form of a gridwork of rods having a lower edge and provided at the edge with an annular stiffening rod and a pallet-like floor downwardly closing the wall, forming therewith an outer vessel, and provided with a plurality of wooden foot beams each having a ground-engaging lower surface, an upper surface, and a pair of ends. Respective steel plates on the upper surfaces of the foot beams each have bent-down ends overlying the respective beam ends. Fasteners such as screws or nails are engaged through the steel-plate ends into the respective beam ends. Integral connections are provided between each of the plates and the annular stiffening rod at the lower edge of the wall. An inner vessel composed of flexible plastic material is enclosed by the outer wall and supported on the floor.
Typically the floor has a group of nine blocks in a rectangular array so that the pallet can be attacked from all four sides by a fork lift and each row of blocks is carried on a slat. The slats are in turn secured by the clips to the lower stiffening rod to hold the assembly together.
The problem with such an arrangement is that the container can lose shape either from rough handling, for instance being set down hard by a fork lift, or simply from the weight of the often heavy fluent contents of the bladder held in the outer vessel. The result is a container whose sides bulge out of the desired rectangular shape so it cannot be packed tight next to another such container or whose floor is downwardly deformed so that it cannot sit flat.